Empowering People to Take Control of Their Personal Finances with Brian Fouts, CEO of The Elevation Group

For 10 years, Brian Fouts worked and traveled as a construction manager – but while following the straight and narrow, he accrued debt, struggled to make ends meet, and realized his time was controlled by someone else. He knew there was a greater journey to follow, and made a significant change after 2008, when he, his family and friends lost their homes, their life savings and financial security. He and his brother Jake began to educate themselves about how money, wealth and “real” investing worked. Learning strategies ranging from real estate to private lending to cash banking (including real estate single families and online investing), they began taking control of their financial destinies. As founders of The Elevation Group, they teach people how to get out of the rat race and create connections with those who can help them achieve their goals. Through their resources at EVG and investing ventures, they built Elevation Institute as a beacon to those looking for actionable education and resources to take control of their financial security.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

*Brian and Jake’s Mission: To bring advisors to our communities so we can all learn together. To uncover the secret investment strategies of the rich by accessing their advisors – and teaching people how to implement them in their lives.

*The Five Pillars they created which posit fresh ways to think about money and create personal abundance versus scarcity

*Pillar One: Creating that resource, that fuel, which is capital and revenue. Including figuring out ways to keep more of what you earn in your pocket; finding new ways to make money via investments like real estate and small apartment buildings; and how to buy an existing business and building it, or starting your own.

*Pillar Two: Taking that capital and making it work for you, using money to make more money. Brian and Jake teach ways you can funnel money into an account to ensure guaranteed return for life; that’s called elevation banking.

*Pillar Three: Where you keep as much as you can and protect it – including ways to get tax breaks.

*Pillar Four: How to take what you’ve built and acquire cash flowing assets that are going to pay you and essentially free you up and create income that allows you to become your own boss.

*Pillar Five: Legacy. This is where you take what you have built, make it last, protect it and pass it on.

*The shift in mindset when people realize that all this is possible if you implement the right strategies. It’s not about 10,000 strategies, but three or four you can choose from to create the best personal fit. One of which is investing in real estate, and in particular, small apartments

*The importance of surrounding yourself with and learning from people who will elevate you.

*A story of one of Brian’s clients, who followed the pillars and created wealth via business entities and real estate investments. And how his ongoing change in mindset made the difference.

*The importance of identifying the things that are holding you back from what you want in life.

*How focusing on your future success rather than worries of failure can make all the difference.

*The importance of starting by asking the “right” questions.

*Why it’s necessary to be excited about the journey, and how it’s similar to the way you approach an impending vacation.

*How Brian and Jake are building their EVG membership.

*A different way to understand “retirement.”

*How having some of the knowledge that Brian and Jake teach could have completely changed their financial circumstances for the better even during 2008 and the Great Recession.

*How a short note that Brian put in a little wooden box predicting his future financial freedom proved prophetic

*The profile quiz that helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses as an investor.